Monday, April 28, 2014

The timing for this project could not have been more perfect. I just returned from a wonderful spring break vacation with my kids and my dad. So many memories rushed back to me that the dialogue for this story practically wrote itself. It is a story about sharing our favorite childhood experiences with our children.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

1. What is the Coherence Principle and its most
important constraints/criteria?

According
to Moreno and Mayer, “Students learn better when extraneous material is
excluded rather than included in multimedia explanations.” This is mostly due in part to the fact the
human’s . . . “capacities of the visual and auditory working memory are highly
limited.” (Mayer)

2. Describe and/or include one example of
successful and one example of unsuccessful attempts to apply the Coherence
Principle in actual instruction and training you have experienced, especially
as it might be implemented in PowerPoint-based instruction and training. Have
you ever seen this principle violated or abused? Identify the violations,
including citations as needed from your textbook.

I
recently taught a lesson about the Social Psychology concept of “Evaluation
Apprehension.” On the same slide with
the term evaluation apprehension I included a picture of a basketball player
who is an example of what evaluation apprehension can do and another image of a
different basketball player who is an example of someone who is resistant to
evaluation apprehension. My fear is that
when my students recall the term and images, they will remember both images as
being examples of evaluation apprehension.
I should have made two separate slides or not included the non-example
at all.

On
several occasions, I have used music, comics, or stories that are loosely
related to the topic to introduce a concept or to spice up a lesson. The mistake is that the music, comic, or
story is not an accurate example and it either distracts them from the main
idea or confuses them as to what the concept really means.

3. Discuss the relationship of the Coherence
Principle to other Multimedia Learning Principles examined thus far in your
readings.

Both
the contiguity principles reinforce the idea that essential words and
corresponding images should be on a slide in close proximity and at the same
time. (Mayer) I also think the modality principle is
designed to help the students focus on the important things that are being said
while they look at the image instead of trying to read and make sense of sentences
or paragraphs that are written on the slide. (Moreno & Mayer)

One
that I don’t recall reading or learning about yet that I think really goes hand
in hand with the coherence principle are the visual/auditory split attention
principles. If you have background sound
while you are narrating a slide or if you have overly complicated animation or
irrelevant visual prompts they can distract students and prevent them from
focusing on the key concepts and their explanations. (Mayer)

4. Discuss the relationship of the Coherence
Principle to fundamental theories of psychology as described by Clark &
Mayer in your textbook.

According
to Clark and Mayer many instructors attempt to justify their use of extraneous
sounds and images on the arousal theory.
“Arousal theory predicts that students will learn more from multimedia presentations
that contain interesting sounds and music than from multimedia presentations
without interesting sounds and music.” (Clark
& Mayer p. 156) Clark and Mayer
counter this theory by pointing out that our working memory has a limited
capacity and when our students focus in on the extraneous sounds, music, or
images they can’t focus what the instructor is saying or the main concept of
the lesson. They also added that a
subject needs to be interested in and of itself, no amount of extraneous
sounds, music, or images can make something more interesting that it actually
is. (Clark & Mayer. p. 156 &
161)

5. What do you personally like or dislike about
this principle? Present a coherent, informed opinion and explain why you hold
this opinion. Are there any limitations or qualifications of the principle
(caveats) which the authors did not consider and, if so, what are they?

I
like that this principle is based on a physiological limitation that most
humans have. We can only take in or
process so much information at any given time.
I like that it encourages teachers to be more deliberate in their
curriculum design and instruction. I
have tried to fight against this principle for much of my career and I have
paid the price. The most common
questions and comments I get are, “I don’t understand how that is an example or
illustration of what we are learning?” and “Where are we and what am I supposed
to be doing right now.”

What
I do dislike about it is the fact that there are songs, stories, and activities
I like to use in class even if they are not right on the mark and now I know
that not only are they not helping students learn, they are actually disrupting
student learning.

Monday, March 24, 2014

I am starting to like Audacity more and more each day. I even figured out how to cut unwanted pauses and filler words our of my podcast. I did include music, but I used a rough work around. I will work on the fade in and out next time.

As my podcast explains, our school is working towards a 1 to 1 model that we hope to implement in the 2015-2016 school year. My podcast series is designed for our faculty members who may not be well versed in educational technology and blended schools specifically. My first podcast is an overview of blended classrooms, the concepts we hope to incorporate the misconceptions in regards to a blended online environment, and the jargon that is used in the EdTech world.

As for the AECT standards, I have labeled the ones that I think apply. I think that 2.4 is the most applicable because it is the first time I have used a pure audio recording to deliver a message. In additional, that audio recording, or podcast is being made available through my use of Dropbox and my blog. It's amazing how it all comes together.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

The timing for the assignment was excellent. Tomorrow I will be teaching a lesson in my World Geography class about the break up of Yugoslavia. We will discuss the factors that hold a nation together or help to pull it apart. For years I have wanted to put together a quick case study about the conditions in Iraq prior to the U.S. invasion and see if the students could apply the lessons learned in Yugoslavia to the situation in Iraq. So for this assignment, I finally put together the Iraq Case Study. Here it is:

I think I did a good job of limiting the text (coherence principle) and keeping the text that I did use concise and properly paired up with the images I selected (modality principle). I also used the subject heading of each slide to "signal" the tone, focus, and message of each slide. As I got the end of my presentation I went back and "segmented"/reorganized or deleted slides to make sure that it was all in a logical order and manageable chunks.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

This has been a learning process, I made this page for a class last summer and I have since used it for a few other classes. I was able to keep it all categorized by putting each classes posts on separate pages as opposed to actual posts on the main blog page. As I went about trying to figure out how to create "Labels" I discovered that you can only attach "Labels" to posts and not to page updates. So I have moved my EDTECH 513 Learning Log out onto my main page.

(Here is what I wrote earlier when I was hoping to keep it all on a single "Page")
I'll begin with full disclosure, I have created several different web pages and blog sites for different classes in this program. I am very relieved that we are encouraged to use Blogger for this assignment. Where I am stepping away from the approved guidelines is I am hoping that it is okay that I set this "Learning Log" up as a page on my "Stevenson's Teaching Tools" pre-existing blog. If this is going to be a problem, I can pull it out onto the overall blog and post all my learning logs as posts and not just as entries onto this one page.

A Blog is a combination of the above three mentioned AECT standards, you are using a computer based system to deliver audiovisual samples to communicate a specific message.

After working through the "Label" process, it appears that if I want to attach Labels to my posts, I can't just make updates on a single page, I need to make my weekly responses in an actual post. So I am now posting this on my main page.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Throughout
history there have been several revolutions that have changed the world, the
first agricultural revolution in 2000 BC, the scientific revolution in 1600s, the
industrial revolution in the 1800s, and the social revolution in the United
States in the 1960s. People who
attempted to ignore these revolutions and continue on with their life were left
behind. If teachers attempt to ignore
the technological revolution that is taking place they and the students that
they are charged to teach will be left behind as well.

Technology
does not mean that students don’t need teachers anymore and technology does not
mean that teachers must abandon many of their preferred means of
instruction. According to Roblyer and
Doering, “Teachers will always be more important than technology.” (p. 10). Technology should be seen as a variety of
tools and methods that a teacher can add to their toolbox.

Opportunities for Teachers: Teachers can use technology
to: present information, peak their students’ interest, help their students
practice skills and receive immediate feedback, to assess their students, organize
their grades and teaching materials, and to communicate with their students and
parents outside of class.

Opportunities for Students: Students can use technology to: improve their computer literacy, research
and explore new information, create products, practice traditional literacy and
numeracy skills, conduct simulations, share information with fellow classmates,
and track their own scores and progress.

Opportunities for Parents: Parents can use technology to: monitor their child’s progress,
communicate with teachers, and see the products their child creates.

Technology should be used to enhance teaching methodologies and to create a classroom community. One
of the best illustrations of enhancing teaching, creating a classroom community, and involving parents can be seen at: http://russellst.school.nz/ where the
entire elementary has taken technology, particularly classroom and student
blogs to the next level.